BL.755 Cluster Bomb

BL.755 CLUSTER BOMB

Note: The French MATRA family of Laser Guided Bombs and the British BL.775 cluster bombs are used widely. The IAF has acquired Paveway laser guidance kits, from Texas Instruments, for its British-designed 2000 lbs. bombs.

The BL.755 was designed for attack against a wide range of small hard and soft targets from low level, and strews sub-munitions over an area, rather greater than the likely aiming area. Each store comprises a finned pod hung on either NATO 356mm (14 in) or Warsaw Pact 250mm (9.84 in) lugs and is protected by various safety interlocks. Before take-off, 1 of 4 time delays is selected, to ensure safe separation from the aircraft before the primary cartridge is fired. Gas from this blows off the 2 panels forming the skin of the pod. The main cartridge is then fired, blowing out 21 sub-munitions from each of the seven compartments arranged in tandem, a total of 147 bomblets.

Two BL.755 cluster dispensers of the German Luftwaffe

Each sub-munition has a hollow charge for piercing armour (at least 250mm) and also shatters the case into over 2000 lethal fragments. The BL.755 cluster bomb entered service in 1972 and was followed in 1987 by the Improved BL.755. The second generation weapon fires more powerful bomblets able to pierce thicker armour, using new technology shaped-charged explosive held at almost a vertical attitude; the bomblet pattern takes into account the much greater accuracy of Tornado and other modern low-level attack aircraft, making possible far more accurate attacks on armour concentrations.